HPE Alletra Storage Reviews

HPE Alletra Storage is being used for systems for online banking transactions. We have sold this to the main bank that connects with all other banks, and the transactions occur in real-time.

HPE Alletra Storage comes with zero downtime, which is its best feature. It has real-time replication available, so no additional features need to be bought when purchasing the system. It can be cost-effective in this sense, with no extra cost for the customer to own any services. 

HPE Alletra Storage supports up to five petabytes, which is enormous. It simplifies storage operations such as provisioning and day-to-day management. It is a one-window operation, making it easy to manage.

The user interface, configuration, and customization could be improved, though the configuration is currently very easy. Even the migration from one platform to HPE Alletra Storage is very smooth. 

Pricing could be optimized, as it is always a challenge. The competition offers some storage solutions at lower prices, making the cost a significant factor.

We have been working with HPE for approximately 25-26 years.

Some users of HPE Alletra Storage mention that they would prefer higher scalability, although it is generally good.

We have recently sold a lower model of HPE Alletra Storage, but its performance is good. We are in the process of selling them the top-of-the-line HPE Alletra Storage 10000 series, B10000. Once it is installed, we can gather customer feedback, but at the moment, they are satisfied with the lower model as their operational requirements are not as demanding. The next phase project is called a micro payment gateway. For this, they have to perform a tech refresh, and they are opting for a higher model of HPE Alletra Storage B10000. This choice was made because they are satisfied with the lower models they are currently using. They are comfortable with the software as a service that HPE Alletra Storage offers.

HPE technical support is very good, and the customer service is rated 10 out of 10.

Positive

HPE 3PAR is not upgradable anymore, so it is being replaced with the HPE Alletra Storage C40 model. Other solutions, such as Dell PowerStore and Data Domain, have also been sold.

Its price can be optimized. The cost before deployment is significant to customers, but post-deployment cost analysis is not common.

I would rate HPE Alletra Storage a ten out of ten.

I added two shelves to the two Cisco systems and it's running well.

The management costs are very low. That's a big benefit for us.

They've been great. I have no issues with them.

Provisioning works and is very simple. It's easy to use. 

Setting up snapshots is very easy, and replication between the two systems is easy as well.

The solution provides a cloud-like operational model on-prem. I just use it for day-to-day management tasks. Other than that, I don't do provisioning or anything like that. I use the native interface for that.

I keep it pretty up-to-date so I don't have to really worry about any issues. I had a couple of failed drives and they went as planned. It was no big deal.

The solution helped to reduce the time spent on storage for messaging. That said, I don't have too much to compare it to.

Its performance is very good - especially when I added a second shelf to the system. It spreads the data out over more spindles and also more solid-state drives.

They have a new update coming out that I'm going to be using as far as lack of snapshots. I'm going to put that into place as soon as I upgrade to the new version.

I've been using the solution for probably 12 months now. 

It's stable. I've had no issues so far.

It's easy to scale. I just added two new shelves to the systems, and it was straightforward. 

I've never had to call technical support. I've had two failed drives, and they had automated tickets set up with the driver arriving four hours later. 

I've been an HP customer for a long time. I've been happy with their support and reliability.

I've previously used Trinti. However, it is no longer a company.

The deployment was pretty simple. I figured out how to provide or provision the storage and set up replication, and I was done quickly.

The pricing and licensing are streamlined. I didn't have any issues. 

I did look at NetApp, among other solutions. I decided on Alletra based on its interface, ease of use, and the time I didn't need to spend worrying about it.

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten. It's simple to use and we haven't had any technical issues.

Public Cloud

Microsoft Azure

We’re using Alletra as our primary data center for critical servers, including web and e-commerce services. It also handles our data and storage servers.

The solution offers faster resolution. The developers have noted how quickly it performs when they configure the application. The snapshots have been helpful as well. In the past, we experienced data corruption and were able to restore the entire volume using the snapshot feature without any data loss.

The solution is five to seven times faster than Nimble Storage and responds quickly to data requests.

The user interface is user-friendly and easy to manage.

The snapshot feature is very similar to that of Nimble Storage.

The solution offers easy management and scalability.

Alletra provides a cloud-like model for managing on-premises storage. I am already using GreenLake, and it has been good. The cloud-like model is decent, although we are not fully on the cloud yet. We have high bandwidth, so we haven't noticed much difference between on-premises and cloud.

It is good for preventing problems before they occur. Everything goes to the cloud, so we receive notifications if there is an issue. If there is a link disconnection or a system issue, I get notified.

The 100% data availability has been important for us. We knew that Alletra was scalable and more stable in terms of storage. We depend on Alletra 100% for our data and need to ensure its availability.

It has helped us reduce time spent on storage provisioning by 25%. For example, if I am creating a new volume, it takes just a few seconds and replicates quickly to the vCenter. The entire process is much faster than other solutions.

Alletra ensures that the time spent resolving storage-related support tickets remains consistent. It is always fast and scalable.

The solution is already quite effective, and I haven’t identified any shortcomings. In the future, it would be helpful to receive text notifications for alerts in addition to the current email notifications.

I've been using the solution for five months.

The stability is great.

The scalability is excellent. 

The customer and tech support are excellent. The technicians are quick to respond, and the overall support has been good. However, there can be a slight delay on weekends compared to business days, usually around five to ten minutes. Despite this, the response remains fairly prompt.

Positive

I've used Storwize by IBM. We also used Nimble. Alletra is a faster application.

The integration was straightforward and easy with vCenter and Nimble Storage's connection management tools. We also utilized the deployment tools from Alletra. We started with a hybrid setup with the goal of transitioning to the cloud. Currently, we are using GreenLake.

The deployment process was excellent. The shipment was prompt, and we had a technician on-site who assisted with the storage racks. Another technician handled the management setup, while I took care of the configurations. The entire process was smooth and hassle-free, with no complications.

We handled the initial setup ourselves. 

We made the right Invesment by choosing Alletra. 

The pricing is reasonable. We got Alletra at a great price, almost the same as Nimble. However, we doubled our storage for nearly the same cost.

Yes, we did. However, we found that Alletra is the best fit for our business.

I’d rate the solution ten out of ten. I’ve never experienced a hard disk or hardware failure, which is great.

Hybrid Cloud

We primarily use the solution for VMware virtualization. 

It [HPE Alletra Storage] offers more performance and better value for money than Nimble Gen 5 arrays. It's very stable.  

The VMware integration is very good. Not all arrays have such a good integration.

The GUI for onboarding is straightforward.

We chose the 6000 with local GUI over the 9000.
As for the 9000 you need to use DSCC to manage the arrays.

The solution does provide a cloud-like operational model on-prem. We haven't used it so much since we have built own on-prem tools and do not really need management software in the cloud. We prefer our own data centers for data and management sovereignty. That way, if there's a major incident where we have to cut off the Internet connection. Then it's a bad thing to have the management software in the cloud.

It's good for predicting and preventing problems before there are major issues. We like that HPE can collect the data and we get information to see if something is prone to errors. That way, we don't have to be the first ones to experience errors. We get a heads-up.

The DSCC solution helps reduce time spent on storage provisioning. However, VMware has also improved on with VMware vVols, and so the impact is minimal for us.

Alletra has helped with improving the storage performance. It offers good storage performance overall. 

For the 6000, we'd like to see active-active controllers. For the 9000, Alletra has it. Yet it doesn't offer the superior agile functionality of the 6000.

I started using the solution when they first came out in 2021. I used to use Nimble before that.

The stability is great.

It could scale a bit better regards to VMware vVols.

They offer really good support. One of the reasons we went with 6000 was due to the fact that they kept Nimble support.

Positive

We previously used Nimble Gen5. With this solution we got better performance for value. 

Setup was easy and straightforward.

We implemented it ourselves.

We have witnessed an ROI, although I do not have concrete metrics.

The pricing is competitive. Compared to Pure Systems, it's less expensive. 

We did not evaluate other options before choosing Alletra.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. It offers good performance and support.

On-premises

The solution is our primary storage for virtualization.

It's got an integration with InfoSight. There are metrics that are provided by it and the support that we get from Nimble Alletra Support is great. The insights we get are important. All of the reporting we get and the recommendations we get on performance impacts are helpful. It predicts problems and helps prevent issues. 

It's helped us save time spent on storage usage. Due to its integration, we've had an 80% to 90% reduction in storage provisioning time. 

It's helped improve IOPs. We size the solution properly and customers have been happy with the results.

I would like to see some form of direct connect fiber channel options.

I've used Alletra Storage for a long time.

The scalability is good. There are options. 

Support is fantastic for Allerta. Everything else from HPE isn't as good. 

Positive

Our customers are switching from other vendor options. I've been recommending Alletra to them. 

I have experience with other storage solutions within the HPE family. I haven't used other vendors. Alletra is top-notch within the HPE family in terms of performance and support. 

I've deployed the solution before. An Alletra by itself is simple to implement. When partnered with dHCI, it's a bit more complex. 

The pricing is good for the market that I serve. The subscription model is tough for them. We can do multiple terms now. 

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. 

On-premises

We typically use Alletra NVMe drives for high-performance applications requiring more than 200,000 IOPS per second. We also have HPE's 3PAR, the most advanced version of the storage array. It can address most application issues and has less than 2 millisecond latency. 

We had faced issues with 3PAR because the drives slowed down, and we constantly had to change the capacity. There was too much incoming data, and the CTDs were always full. We needed some compression, deduplication, and provisioning. Even after applying all these techniques, we still faced some issues with space. 

But Alletra has high-capacity NVMe drives, so we no longer have a problem. There are no spikes, regardless of our incoming IOPS or my customer's application requirements. The solution immediately addresses the needs of any applications. 

Also, you need not worry about backend vulnerabilities. It is an awesome product. You deploy and run it without worrying about what's happening at the security level.  It's better than other storage classes like MSS. These NVMe models have played a significant role here.

We achieve storage availability by maximizing usable storage while minimizing hardware storage requirements. We have almost three petabytes of data space, and we're only using one petabyte, leaving two petabytes available.

We have the most advanced HPE products available that we can monitor with the HPE InfoSight feature, which enables us to check every metric, including bandwidth and latency, at a granular level. Alletra's mechanism is excellent and can handle multiple traffic sources. Anything is possible. Regarding your application, the IO behavior can be random, sequential, or a database. It serves web and e-commerce applications better. 

HPE InfoSight lets you see all the alerts from SSMC and proactively log cases. It will automatically raise a ticket to HPE when critical hardware fails. You get an idea about what will happen and be proactive. You can see when a node will restart so we can investigate and work with support. We can also see how nodes and ports are performing. 

DataCare helps you manage allocation mapping and firmware upgrades. We can also replace drives, troubleshoot, set up applications, update proxies, and take backups through DataCare. 

More training videos would help. We could learn some best practices. Sometimes, people may not follow the best practices and reach out to support, who will tell them that they need to follow these best practices to get this performance or result. 

I have used Alletra for nearly two years.

The batteries, BIOS configuration, and power supply are much more stable than the previous models.

I rate HPE support eight out of 10. Their support is kind, and they respond quickly.

Positive

We have IBM's flash array. We face too many problems with IBM's flash array because the code is unstable and nodes must be restarted. We haven't seen these issues with Alletra. We also use Oracle Cloud and plan to use AWS, but the cost is too high. 

Alletra is straightforward if you connect it properly. Once it's plugged in, you assign IP addresses and start configuring the security

I rate HPE Alletra nine out of 10. 

On-premises

We use it for our backend Tier 0 storage.

It is the core foundation for our disaster recovery plan and high availability plan. We use Peer Persistence in conjunction with VMware vSphere Metro Storage Cluster to fail over critical workloads between data centers on a quarterly basis.

HPE Alletra Storage tries to provide a cloud-like operational model on-prem for managing data infrastructure. The cloud-like operational model has not affected operations such as deployment, provisioning, and day-to-day management. It is not enterprise-ready.

We have not seen much evidence of the fact that HPE Alletra Storage can predict problems and prevent them before they occur.

It is important that they guarantee data availability. They have had to pay up multiple times because they were not able to provide the availability, and so far, they have kept their word.

HPE Alletra Storage has helped reduce the time spent on storage provisioning. It has saved about 20% of the time. With each iteration, they are getting better at their user interface.

HPE Alletra Storage has improved our storage performance in terms of IOPS. There is about 50% improvement.

Multi-node or the four controllers and the port persistence are valuable. The overall redundancy and performance of the system is valuable.

They can continue developing their V vaults and peer persistence. They can implement active-active peer persistence so that our organization can use it.

In the next release, we would like more V vault support with metro clustering or peer persistence.

I have been using HPE Alletra Storage for two and a half years.

We were early adopters, so we got to see some of the worst of Alletra. Since then, it has become much more stable. It is definitely a much more stable product now.

It is very scalable.

Their support is pretty good. I would rate them a nine out of ten.

HPE has dedicated a lot of resources to our organization to ensure that we are successful. There is definitely a lot of collaboration between our organizations to support Alletra.

Positive

We were using 3PAR and Primera. We switched because it was a refresh into the newer technologies.

We are mostly on-prem, but we do use Azure as we have started to do a hybrid model. 

Its deployment was very smooth and simple.

We did it ourselves. It was very straightforward.

We have seen an ROI. As data continues to grow in our environment, driving down the price per terabyte is essential for us to be able to continue to afford the performance they give us.

HPE was a clear winner on price per terabyte. It was very smooth.

We evaluated Pure, and we evaluated EMC. The main difference was the price per terabyte.

I would rate HPE Alletra Storage an eight out of ten. If they can improve some of the things, that would take it to ten.

We use the solution for infrastructure for one of our global financial customers to allow them to scale up and out.

The distributed hyper-converged infrastructure is great. Just having the ability to scale independently storage compute is useful. 

The extended capacity offers a small footprint that's still meeting a large customer demand. 

The cloud-like model will be helpful. I can see it will make things much more efficient once we get to that point.

For predicting and preventing problems, it looks like it will be a very useful feature. It will simplify operations and Day Zero and Day One operations.

Its guarantee of data availability is important. It will be one of the key aspects for the customer. 

It will help save time around storage provisioning once implemented fully.

The simplified provisioning of storage compared to other solutions in and of itself will make it more efficient.

Customers have an existing solution they can compare the performance of IOPs to. This product looks to be as good or even better. However, that's yet to be determined. 

Alletra should effectively reduce the time dealing with support tickets once it is fully implemented. It likely will improve by a factor of two to three, although we aren't at that point yet.

From what I've seen so far it's definitely checking the boxes of what the customer's looking for.

I'd like to see larger cluster sizes beyond four nodes. 

I've been using the solution for four months. 

It seems to be robust, and since it's based on the Nimbe product line, it will be mature. that stability will be fine. 

Going up to four nodes is not as scalable as I'd like for horizontal scaling. Vertical scaling is huge. That said, the ability to go beyond four nodes would be of interest to customers in the future.

I haven't dealt with technical support yet. However, I'm sure it will be fine. I've seen a lot of focus on support. HPE will definitely bring its A-game. 

Positive

We use Dell. They are looking at the smaller footprint and simplicity as far as managing the product which is why Allertra is so attractive. 

We haven't deployed the solution yet. That said, just talking to the HPE deployment team and watching the demo, the process seems like it will be very simple. We'll be able to do it in hours instead of days or weeks. 

I'm an integrator. I'll help my clients handle the implementation. 

With a smaller footprint, there will be less power consumption. There will be more effective capacity as well, and less rack space used. 

I've heard the licensing is going to be much, much more streamlined than what they're used to currently. 

The customer is also looking at Hitachi, although it's more complex. Plus, the customer already has a significant HPE footprint. 

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. From an effective capacity, power, and footprint standpoint, it edges out the incumbent.

On-premises